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'Possible' More Counties Than Now Known Were Hacked In 2016, Fla Delegation Says

A Republican observer looks at a ballot during a hand recount last November in Broward County, Fla. Florida officials and lawmakers are still learning about cyberattacks there.
Wilfredo Lee/AP

Miles Parks | NPR|May 16, 2019

Updated at 4:35 p.m. ET

Florida lawmakers were angry Thursday when they emerged from an FBI briefing that left them with unanswered questions about the two county election offices in their state breached by Russian cyberattacks in 2016.

The bipartisan group of members of Congress was most frustrated with not learning about the hacks sooner. The first word of at least one intrusion came from a single line in special counsel Robert Mueller's redacted report, which was released publicly in April.

"This chaotic dribs-and-drabs of information that's coming out is doing more harm to our constituents' faith in the electoral system than just coming out and providing some information," said Rep. Stephanie Murphy, a Democrat who represents Florida's 7th District.

The lawmakers were briefed on which of Florida's 67 counties were successfully breached, but they, like DeSantis, said they could not disclose that information.

Members of Congress and election officials both say they're frustrated that more than two years after the 2016 election — and the release of the Mueller report — they're still learning about exactly what happened in the earlier wave of interference.

Rep. Michael Waltz, a Republican who represents the state's 6th District, was asked if he thought there were more counties nationally breached in 2016 that the public still doesn't know about.

"It's possible," he said.

Lori Edwards, a supervisor of elections in Polk County, Fl., said she couldn't think of a good reason not to disclose what happened, considering how long it's been since the 2016 election.

"I just honestly cannot make sense of why people are trying to keep a secret from three years ago. And as a matter of fact, I think they are making it worse by doing so," Edwards said. "It's kind of like a noise in the dark — a lot worse than when you can see what really happened. People are just assuming the worst."

Cyber-campaign

Mueller's office has charged a group of intelligence officers in Russia's military spy agency, the GRU, with the cyberattacks that targeted a number of state election officials and vendors around the country.

The Russians appear to have focused on trying to discover what was contained in state and contractor databases, although public information remains incomplete as to the full nature of the cyberattacks.

DeSantis and other officials have stressed there is no evidence that cyberattacks changed any votes.

Lawmakers confirmed Wednesday however, that the Russian hackers did gain adequate access to be able to change voter registration data if they'd wanted, although there is no evidence that they did so.

The systems that are used to tabulate results are not connected to the registration systems.

"What the FBI has come forward with is that they have no evidence that the voter database was tampered with," Waltz said. "But their level of confidence was unclear."

The Florida lawmakers made a point of trying to show that concerns about election security aren't partisan.

Rep. Matt Gaetz, who represents Florida's 1st District, has been among the leading critics of Mueller's investigation into President Trump's campaign. On Thursday, Gaetz said voters in Florida need more information about Russia's interference efforts in 2016.

"The victims in these cases are not government office holders [who were hacked] — the victims are voters," Gaetz said. "And the victim truly is the integrity we have to have, and the trust we have to have, in the American election system."